Last night several of us in Milwaukee visited the Conowingo Central Railroad, the large and beautifully finished model railroad owned by the late Mike Ziegler. The layout was featured in the July 2005 Railroad Model Craftsman. Unfortunately the extensive website devoted to the CCR is no longer up. One of Mike’s fondest wishes, in spite of ill health, was to be on the layout tours during the NMRA national convention in Milwaukee in 2010. Unfortunately his death in 2008 deprived him of that, but his widow has determined that, yes, the layout will be up and running for the convention.
Not long after his death we held a sort of memorial operating session but it was emotionally trying and we did not get back. So last night was a general clean up of track, structures, rolling stock, of a layout which had not been touched, for all practical purposes, for a year and half.
Fortunately by arriving late I did not have to deal with the eighteen dead mice which prior to their demise had done quite a bit of damage to the natural materials trees which covered the mountains and other scenery areas. So there is a lesson right there: if mice are a potential problem, think twice about natural materials (i.e., mouse food or mouse nesting material). Also if the problem is permanent, hidden pest control can be as useful as hidden staging.
I was armed with a vacuum cleaner with a special set of very small hoses and brushes (itself a very wise investment for the modeler). An almost unbelievable amount of dust was on every freight car, locomotive, structure, vehicle, roadway, bridge, water surface, etc. Mike had dust control and air purifiers, and the house is fairly new with a false ceiling but even so, any house creates dust.
Lessons learned: if cleaning is a likely future activity decide early on what needs to be fastened